SURVIVOR? LIKE THE TV SHOW?

I recently attended the third annual Bloomington Gold Survivor Show in St. Charles, Ill. Let me say that I think these folks have a great idea. They’re trying to establish standard for collector cars and recognize the value of cars with little or no restoration. The did this in the Corvette hobby and now they’re expanding it to other cars.

Unfortunately, once you go from Corvettes to other cars, the word “Survivor” kind of changes meaning. To the average person, a “survivor” is something that washes up on the shore after a shipwreck. For instance, yesterday I was driving my cosmetically-challenged MGTF at a local eatery and the owner said, “You’ve got a real survivor there.”

The cars I saw down in Illinois were not “survivors” to the average person. You could say they were historically preserved cars or unrestored cars. In fact, an even better name would be “Rip Van Winkle” cars. Some may think of them as “hidden treasure” or “original.” There is probably a dozen other names they could be called-but “survivor” isn’t one of them!

So, I think Bloomington Gold has a great idea in this show, but maybe it’s time to put more thought into its name. What would you call it?